I told myself I would write my story here after I passed. I took my first NCLEX in early July 2015 and used NCSBN's review as well as a bit of Kaplan's Qbank. I thought NCSBN would be the best choice because they are the actual writers of the exam. My school provided a Kaplan review weekend as well.
NCSBN: The content review was good, albeit a bit dry. I did enjoy the questions at the end of each sections as well as the question bank. However, I felt the questions were a bit easy and to be honest, they were nowhere near like the ones I encountered on my first exam. So in short, it's a good supplement for review but wouldn't use it as a main source.
Kaplan: The thing about Kaplan is that it's all about techniques. I know of many friends who used solely the Question trainers and passed with flying colors. I'm a different learner though I suppose. The rationales were very bland. But in my exam, I did recognize some topics I encountered on Kaplan. Master the techniques (ABCs, Maslows, etc).
Lippincott PDA: Many people on this forum and my friends swear by this. Rented it at my local library and used the online resource (which is pretty much the entire book). Definitely go over infection control. This resource really taught me about which things are the priority, most acute, etc. Definitely a worthwhile supplement to your study.
So then I took my exam. Went in very nervous and caffeinated (8am test). Got up to 75 .. didn't stop. Passed 150 .. knew I was in it for the long haul. Ended 265 and I felt my last question was very easy (which IMO isn't a good sign). Went home, did the PVT .. and it tried to take my money. Use a wrong expiration date. Yes I tried it after 2 and 24 hours.
I was devastated. I didn't know how to get back on the horse and took a few weeks to recuperate. When I finally did, I decided to use a program called UWorld. -- I honestly feel like this made a huge difference. I did the ENTIRE question bank and went over each rationale. To me, Uworld is both a qbank AND content review .. AS LONG as you go over each rationale in depth. I only used UWorld as well as SOME of the NCLEX RN App ($29) and the 39 page review laying around here somewhere. My tips are to MASTER infection control (airway, droplet, precaution) as well as prioritizing and delegation. That was the bulk of what I saw.
I took my test on November 3rd. Went in calm, and treated NCLEX as if I was doing UWorld question. It even looks identical! After I passed 75 .. 150 .. I knew I would be in it for the long haul once more. But my last dozen questions leading up to 265 seemed to be high level questions and SATA. I only got about 25 SATA total, one math, a couple exhibits, one drag and drop. When I finished, I didn't feel as though I failed like the first time.
When I got out .. I tried the PVT within an hour. I got the "good pop up" and was ecstatic. I tried it again after 24 hours, and I was STILL getting it. Finally, this morning Thursday November 5, I can now call myself a full fledged RN. My name and RN # are up on Breeze. I'm in California so there's no quick results. I feel like i'm on top of the world.
